The Federal Government has finally gotten off its ass and did something about our water. They passed the Water Infrastructure Bill which was intended to help communities like Flint to replace their lead pipes. The Senate passed the bill first.

Then it want to the House of Representatives. You know the house that represents the American people directly. This is the one body in our Congress that is supposed to be the direct voice of the people. There are far more members of the House than the Senate. Each member of the House must face election every two years in their specific district, where they are also supposed to live.

So, what could possibly go wrong with this bill? Well, the Senate version contained a clause that said all steel, iron, aluminum, and any other material necessary to rebuild our water infrastructure must be made in America. Considering that the American taxpayer is paying for this bill, that is a reasonable thing to expect.

That way the bill would not only help construction workers who will be needed to build the infrastructure, but manufacturing jobs that will be necessary to make the material they need. We all know that Donald Trump is supposedly all in favor of such clauses that will bring “jobs back to America”. He has said so over and over.

However, apparently, Paul Ryan didn’t get the memo from Trump about saving American jobs. For that matter, Trump hasn’t got the memo about saving American Jobs either.

Paul Ryan decided that the “made in America” clause was not necessary and pulled it out of the House version of the bill. Democratic Senators even tweeted Donald Trump asking him to talk to Ryan to keep the measure in the bill.

They tweeted him because they figured with his love for tweets, that was the best way to get to him. He never replied to the tweets, and apparently never told Ryan that Trump thought it was a good idea to keep the clause.

So, when work begins on rebuilding our water infrastructure, just like Trump did when he built his hotel in Las Vegas, the country can purchase their steel from China not American steel mills. And, if they do, you will be paying to support Chinese steel and ignoring our own steel workers.

Turns out the infamous Carrier Deal isn’t as good as Trump said it was. He id not save 1100 jobs. He save 730 which is fantastic. The rest of the jobs he claims to have saved were never going to “move to Mexico” anyway. Although 1200 jobs from Carrier plants in Indiana are still moving to Mexico. Some great deal.

But, even putting that aside, Trump could not be bothered to save the “made in America” clause in a bill to rebuild our water infrastructure to help American workers. He was asked for his support, and refused to help.

The omission of that one clause could cost American workers dearly. If our own government won’t purchase our own products, why should anyone else? Did Trump lie to us again, or did Ryan simply refuse to accept the premise that American jobs are worth more than Chinese?

In my opinion, both Trump and the Republicans were given their first real test about saving American Jobs. They both failed miserably. I guess the next thing we will see is that our military equipment won’t be required to be “made in America” either. That will be great for our national security.

All of the rhetoric you have been hearing about how much Trump cares about American jobs have been lies. Can you imagine the headlines Trump could have gotten if he had gone to war with Ryan over this one clause? We might actually have been able to believe his rhetoric about our jobs.

But since he was apparently “too busy” to bother with this one clause, we know he is lying. Yes, he might do something to save a few jobs for headlines to say how wonderful he is, but when it comes to saving potentially millions of jobs, he just can’t be bothered. When it comes to spending American taxpayer money on American infrastructure, he can’t be bothered.

But then again this bill has nothing to do with making Trump richer by using his own companies. Maybe that is why he couldn’t be bothered. Trump hasn’t even taken office yet. Still Republicans and Trump himself are showing just how unimportant our workers and products are to them. Even when spending their tax dollars.

Part of the “pursuit of happiness” is having a job to pursue that happiness. Under the last three Republican Presidents we lost jobs and unemployment went up. Under the last two Democratic Presidents we gained jobs and unemployment went down.

I do not see anything from Trump yet that will break that Republican/Democrat cycle. Especially since our Republican Controlled Congress can’t even allow a “made in America” clause in a bill using taxpayer money and Donald Trump doesn’t see the urgency to help keep that clause in the bill when asked.

Yesterday the Corps of Engineers denied Energy Transfer Partners their permit to place a pipeline beneath Lake Oahe. That is a nice temporary victory for the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. I say temporary because after January 20, 2017 it will be up to President Trump to uphold this decision. Which is doubtful at best.

I say doubtful because the next President happens to own stock in Energy Transfer Partners. So, another of his conflicts of interests will rear its ugly head. And since the CEO of Energy Transfer Partners has said that he is confident Trump will overrule this decision and allow the pipeline to proceed without being rerouted, it would appear the fix is already in.

In a statement on the decision, Jo-Ellen Darcy, the Army’s assistant secretary for civil works, said:

Although we have had continuing discussion and exchanges of new information with Standing Rock Sioux and Dakota Access, it’s clear that there’s more work to do. The best way to complete that work responsibly and expeditiously is to explore alternative routes for the pipeline crossing.

Standing Rock Tribal Chairman Dave Archambault II said of the news:

We wholeheartedly support the decision of the administration and commend with the utmost gratitude the courage it took on the part of President Obama, the Army Corps, the Department of Justice and the Department of the Interior to take steps to correct the course of history and to do the right thing.

The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and all of Indian Country will be forever grateful to the Obama Administration for this historic decision.

National Congress of American Indians President Brian Cladoosby said in an email statement:

My hands go up to all the water protectors who have stood up to protect tribal treaty rights and to protect Mother Earth Thank you for Standing For Standing Rock.

Of course Trump and his fellow Republicans don’t like the ruling. Trump even in another of his tweets after the ruling said “I look forward to ending this anti-energy presidency”.

Somebody should remind Trump that when President Obama took office we had gas prices at $4.00 per gallon. Today it is around $2.00 per gallon. Half of what it was in 2009.

Also, our oil reserves are higher than they have been in decades. Plus, we have more home-grown oil production than we have in decades and we rely less and less on foreign oil. I would like for someone to explain to me how this all explains this “anti-energy presidency” Trump is talking about. It sounds more like an energy friendly presidency.

Trump, Republicans, and oil companies are calling the ruling illegal. They claim the ruling is not following the rule of law. There is a procedure to follow when deciding on these issues. When all of the facts are not in when a ruling is given, the ruling can change according to new information. The protests showed that the people most being affected by the pipeline was never heard. As a result, a new hearing and ruling were both legal and necessary.

I fully expect Trump to do everything he can to make sure this ruling gets cancelled somehow. Plus, he is already looking at how to privatize the reservations. He isn’t going to try to privatize the reservations for the sake of the tribes who live on them, he wants to privatize them so oil and gas companies can get permission to drill for oil and gas on the land without having to go through the full permitting processes that are needed on government property.

The closer we get to inauguration day the more we see that Trump is going to set up a country where corporations have more voice in how things run day-to-day than the people. Everything he is doing so far is in favor of corporations and against the will of the people.

Even his threat to impose a 35 percent tariff on goods shipped in by U.S. companies that make the products overseas is just bluster. Do you really think that he will allow a 35 percent tariff on his own products? All of his products and all of the products sold by his children and wife are all made overseas. Which means they should be part of any 35 percent tariff. Yeah right.

The Standing Rock Sioux received an early Christmas present by the Corps of Engineers to protect their drinking water. Unfortunately, that Christmas present may be revoked in 45 days. The problem with pipelines isn’t whether or not they are the safest way to ship oil. Nor is it that they continuously leak. The problem is that at some point they do leak. The only question is when and how much?

When that leak contaminates drinking water, it will take years before it will be safe to drink again. Water is life. Water is sacred. We need to stop projects that will pollute our water.

This ruling is a step in the right direction. But we cannot trust Trump to do or maintain what is right. He is known for doing and maintaining what is best for his profits over everything and everyone else.

Trump recently tweeted that America Is Open For Business. He should have said America Is For Sale To The Highest Bidder. The one redeeming fact is that if he does reverse this ruling, the Standing Rock Sioux will be back to fight him. We all need to be ready to fight him. Our country is not and never should be for sale.

The Republican Congress is so excited about repealing the Affordable Care Act as soon as President-elect Trump takes off, they are preparing how to take care of the insurers not the insured. That is par for the course for the do-nothing Congress we have had to deal with for six years.

So, here is basically their plan. They will repeal the Affordable Care Act, delay the replacement by up to three years, and bailout any insurance company that suffers financial loss because of their recklessness.

Republicans in the House are already talking to insurance companies about this bailout plan. As usual with Republicans, there is no plan in place so if they go ahead and repeal the Affordable Care Act, our health care insurance business will probably go into free-fall.

Repealing the Affordable Care Act is bad enough. But, not having a replacement ready to go is even worse. Once the Act is repealed what gives insurance companies incentive to stay with the program during the “delay” period? Why should they take any risks if they don’t know what will replace it?

If the Act is repealed without a replacement plan ready to go, most experts say that the market will collapse because carriers will pull out of the plan. Insurance companies could lose millions of dollars because of this collapse. Millions of people would lose their insurance coverage. It would be a mess.

Knowing this, Republicans want to pacify the insurance companies. So they are looking at a plan that would allow the Trump administration to “pay the companies for their losses”. Only, no one has set a “value” to those losses yet.

Imagine, the Republican Party, the “free market” party is already looking to bail out an industry because they don’t know how to do their own job. On the other side of the coin, there is no “bailout” plan for any Americans who lose their insurance coverage because of the repeal and delay plan of theirs.

Despite the fact that premiums have gone up, the Affordable Care Act is actually a winner. It has succeeded so much that only 25 percent of the American people are in favor of this “repeal”.

According to the American people polled, they would prefer that the Act be fixed where it needs to be fixed and left in place. Besides, there are a lot of Trump supporters who only have insurance now because of the Act.

You must also remember that for the last six years we have heard Republicans falsely tell us they are ” only doing what the American People want.” If that were really true, they would fix the Act and not repeal it since 75 percent of Americans want it that way. The poll indicates that the vast majority of Republicans are in favor of fixing not repealing the Act.

Besides, if the insurance industry does collapse under this weird plan, what will happen to Medicare? Ryan says that once they privatize it, only people under 50 years-of-age will be affected. Will Ryan decide to privatize it now and make current Medicare patients go on the open market to help out his biggest donors, the insurance companies?

This “plan” of the Republicans is nothing short of governing by petty peeves and not governing according to the will or the needs of the people. Something the Republican Party has been doing for decades.

We are on the precipice of a government run totally by Republicans. They have ignored the “will of the American people” for so long, what makes you think they will change courses now? They won’t and this ridiculous repeal, delay, and bailout plan is proof.

So, if you are one of those who voted for “change” you failed and your vote doesn’t count. The change you voted for is not the change you will get. The new administration will be full of Wall Street People and Lobbyists. They have proven they don’t care about you, only how much money they make.

Cronyism, Corruption, Lies, Deceit, and Conflicts of interest will be the real agenda of the new administration and Republican controlled Congress. Doesn’t that sound like the government we want? NOT!

The protesters, or rather Water Protectors, are getting threatened by several areas. The Corps of Engineers has said they want the camp where they are staying evacuated because of the harsh winter weather. However, they said they would not “forcibly” force the protesters off the land.

The governor of North Dakota has also ordered an evacuation of the land, also citing harsh weather. But, he also said it was for the “safety of the people who live nearby”. Then he said he would block all food and supplies from entering the area of the camp. Finally, he said anyone who does not leave will be faced with a $1000 fine.

As you know, the Water Protectors are protesting the pipeline from going under Lake Oahe. The lake is a reservoir created by a dam on the Missouri River. The lake is also the main source of drinking water for the Standing Rock reservation and an additional 71 million people.

The tribe claims that the pipeline under this lake would potentially cause the pollution of that drinking water. Furthermore, the tribe says that the work would destroy sacred lands. According to reports from the Guardian, some of these lands and sites have already been destroyed by the company.

The pipeline is being built by Energy Transfer Partners LP. President Obama asked the Corps of Engineers to explore an alternate route for the pipeline. The company’s CEO said he would not reroute the pipeline even if the Corps says it should be done.

The help coming is from 2000 veterans. They announced that they would act as “human shields” for the protesters in the event of a forceful evacuation. There has already been plenty of violence during the protests. Most of that violence was initiated by the police and not the protesters. Yes, some protesters have caused sporadic violence, but the vast majority has been initiated by the police.

The veterans plan to be there from December 4 through December 7. The Corps ordered the evacuation by December 5. To add more fuel to this fire, the GOP has finally taken notice. And, as usual, they are blaming the President.

“The ongoing protest activities ― which at times have turned violent ― are being prolonged and intensified by the Obama administration’s refusal to approve the final remaining easement at Lake Oahe,” Sen. John Hoeven said on the Senate floor.

What he is saying is that since the President hasn’t rolled over in favor of the energy company, he is to blame for the violence not the company, state, police, or anyone else. He is basically saying in usual GOP fashion that people don’t have a right to protest if they believe a company is threatening their drinking water.

We are supposed to take the company’s word that “everything will be just fine, believe me.” He along with the governor and the state’s congressman, Rep. Kevin Cramer (R), have previously called on Obama to deploy federal law enforcement personnel to subdue the protest activity.

In a letter to the president on November 23 they wrote:

We recommend you provide federal law enforcement resources immediately to state and local agencies in order to maintain public safety, which has been threatened by ongoing ― and oftentimes violent ― protest activity. These resources are essential to prevent further destruction on and surrounding federal lands.

So far it has been the police escalating the violence. They have been using tear gas, rubber bullets, bean bags, and percussion grenades often without any warning. There have been injuries especially among the protesters because of this activity by police. They have even used water cannons to spray the protesters with water in freezing temperatures.

The CEO of Energy Transfer Partners is confident that once Trump takes office his pipeline will be approved. Maybe that is because it turns out that Trump owns stock in Energy Transfer Partners directly and stock in other companies that are partners of Energy Transfer Partners.

The land in question belongs to the Sioux Tribe by treaty. Of course treaties have never meant anything to the government when it comes to Native Americans.

Before it gets tweeted or reported on Fox News the veterans are traveling on their own dime, so to speak. They did raise money to help defray costs and food, but to put it in Trump’s language, they are not “paid protesters” trying to make trouble.

During the campaign Donald Trump promised to “drain the swamp”. The very fact that he has ignored this situation at Standing Rock shows me he has no intention of “draining the swamp” but rather using that swamp for his own financial gain.

But, standing in their way are going to be veterans. On their Facebook event page, the group says its aim is to “support our country” and “stop this savage injustice being committed right here at home.” Though their protest will be nonviolent, they urge participants to bring body armor, gas masks, earplugs and shooting mufflers since protesters have been injured by police force. No drugs, alcohol or weapons will be allowed.

If Trump pays attention to this situation, he may learn what integrity, honesty, and duty are really all about. But, I doubt he will learn anything from these men and women.

We all need to support the Standing Rock protests. Please write, call, or email the President asking him to stop the pipeline from going under Lake Oahe. If he doesn’t stop it soon, Trump will give it the go ahead so his stock goes up in value. Drinking water for Native Americans or anyone else doesn’t count as much as dividends.

As time has gone by, the laws concerning marijuana have changed around the country. Some state have totally legalized pot. Others have made it legal for medical purposes.

However, these law changes have placed a lot of people in serious limbo. Even if you live in a state that allows medical marijuana your company may still be able to fire you for drug use if you actually use medical marijuana.

This is proven by the case of a football player for the Buffalo Bills. Offensive lineman Seantrel Henderson has been suspended for the second time for his use of marijuana for helping him cope with the pain of Crohn’s Disease.

There is no cure for Crohn’s Disease. One of the things that helps ease the pain according to medical studies is – weed. “I’ve got doctors telling me this is the No. 1 medicine that would help your disease,” Henderson said in October, according to The Buffalo News. “You try to tell that to the league and it seems like they didn’t care too much.”

To deal with the pain, Henderson smoked marijuana. Medical marijuana is legal in New York State. As one source told NFL.com, “He needs cannabis. You can’t take pain killers with the way his intestines are.” The issue is, while the NFL allows medical exemptions for some banned substances, like Adderall, marijuana is not one of them.

“There is zero allowable medical exemption for this per the NFL; however, there clearly should be,” Brian Fettner, Henderson’s agent, said earlier this season.

Since this is Henderson’s second “offense” he is facing a ten game suspension without pay. If he continues to seek pain relief from the one thing that works best without affecting his intestines, he faces a lifetime suspension.

Several years ago the NFL was being called The No Fun League for not allowing touchdown dances. Since then we have discovered that the league knew about the links between its game and concussions and brain diseases and did nothing about protecting the players. Now, we have a player with a serious disease being suspended for using the one thing, medical marijuana, to ease his pain being suspended.

I think the better description is the No Feelings League, especially when it comes to the health and safety of its players. But this is what happens when a company decides that it is the sole authority to decide what is “medical” and what is not.

It doesn’t matter if you are talking about governments or companies, the will of the people are always secondary to the rules of the elite. The NFL should be ashamed of itself. They should apologize to Henderson and reinstate him and even give him back his pay from the four games he lost in his first suspension.

I hope that Henderson sues the NFL and wins big. There is talk about how the NFL is losing viewers this year. There a lot of reasons as to why it is losing viewers. Maybe, just maybe, the fans are tired of seeing their stars being treated like property with no feelings, no rights, and no pain.

I gave up watching football years ago. They don’t even play football anymore. The players are treated badly. If you care to do a little research, you will discover that injuries in football rose dramatically when players stopped playing fundamental football.

Sorry, but you don’t tackle someone by simply running into them trying to knock them out of the game. And, the league has done nothing to end this farce. Why? Because they treat their players like gladiators and love the idea that this increase in unnecessary violence increases viewership.

Stories like this one make me glad I stopped watching years ago. Yes, players make millions of dollars. But, they are employees and it is the responsibility of the league to help protect them as much as possible. If the NFL can get away with this, what makes you feel safe at your workplace?

The Affordable Care Act was passed almost eight years ago. Despite the fact that it mirrors the Heritage Foundation’s own plan that was unrolled when Hillary Clinton was trying to get universal coverage, they claimed it was no good.

Since that time, they have cried that it “must go” as soon as possible. Ever since 2011, they have promised a replacement plan. They have promised and promised, and promised.

The last word on that came from Paul Ryan about a year and a half ago stating that they “have a plan to have a plan”. We still haven’t heard what their plan is.

Now, Donald Trump is going to be President and they still don’t have a plan. House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy admits they don’t have a plan. When asked what would replace the Affordable Care Act if they repeal it in the first 100 days he said:

My personal belief — and nothing has been decided yet — I would [move through] and repeal and then go to work on replacing. I think once it is repealed you will have, hopefully, fewer people playing politics.

After six years of running down the Affordable Care Act and promising us better coverage for everyone, they still don’t know what the hell they want. Repealing the Affordable Care Act without having a plan ready to replace it is horrible leadership. What will happen to all of those people who are now covered under the act and won’t have any coverage once it is repealed?

And, don’t forget, most of the people who were able to take advantage of the Act in order to get coverage voted for Trump. Now they are facing losing their health care because the Republicans don’t have anything on the table to replace the Act.

To make matters worse, Trump appointed Tom Price who is the most vocal critic of the Act and is dying to repeal it replacement be damned. This is the same man who complained that the Act should never have included birth control in its mandate. He said there “is not a single woman in America that cannot afford birth control.”

It is estimated that over 20 million people will lose their health care coverage if the Affordable Care Act is repealed. What is going to happen to those people? Where are they going to find affordable care if they get sick?

There is another thing to consider. Trump claimed that every American deserves affordable health insurance. In other words, he wants universal health care coverage. That is totally different from what Republicans are promising in Congress.

The only thing Republicans in Congress is promising is to repeal the Affordable Care Act. They are not promising any replacement plan. The new Congress begins on January 3 but McCarthy still refuses to give us any timeline or plan. Instead he says “Look, we are going to start on this right away. I don’t want to get into timeline.”

Apparently McCarthy nor any other Republican has read Talking Points memo. It says “any sort of delay between repealing Obamacare and replacing it could jeopardize the entire individual health insurance market and send insurers fleeing the market.”

The one thing that most Republicans agree on is repealing and replacing the Affordable care Act. Only, they don’t have anything to replace it with so they are only interested in repealing it.

Like all of their failed policies, they say “we will repeal the Affordable Care Act. Then we will get back to you some time in the future with a replacement, maybe.” While you wait for their replacement, you may lose your health coverage. You may then get sick. Some may even die because they can’t afford health insurance.

All the while we wait for a replacement plan they promised us six years ago. This is the Republican’s idea of how to run a country.

(Before we get to todays comments, let me explain the day 20 above. One of the biggest memes of Trump’s campaign was he would “bring back American jobs”. As you know, Donald Trump and his family have several products that they sell in the U.S. These includes things like suits, shirts, ties, accessories, shoes, women’s clothes, and jewelry.

Since Donald Trump is now the President-elect, it is his responsibility to lead our nation. Anyone who has been in a position of leadership knows the best form of leading is from example.

Since Trump and his family want to “bring back American jobs” and since the simple fact is that none of their products are made in America, I have been waiting for him to announce the change from the 12 countries where his products are made to bring them back to America.

It has now been 20 days since he woke up as the President-elect. I will continue the count until he announces that his manufacturing jobs will be returned to the U.S. Once he does that, I will restart the count until the jobs actually begin. If you expect to make promises to the American worker, start at home with your own products.)

Since Donald Trump began announcing his cabinet and administration picks, he has shown beyond reasonable doubt that he intends to dismantle our democratic country. I am not sure if he is trying to move quick so there won’t be a campaign in 2020 or if he is toying with that idea still.

I am not kidding about this either. He is naming people who have been so un-American, in my opinion, that there can be no other reason for their appointments. Plus, he is proving he is the liar that we all know he is.

During the campaign, he said Hillary Clinton should be in jail. His reason was because of her private email server. He, and conservatives in general, claimed it was illegal, which it was not. They also claimed that she “compromised classified” information because it might have been on the server, and it might be subjected to a hack.

All investigations, including that by the FBI said there were no laws broken and therefore no criminal charges could be brought. That did not quiet the critics who claimed that it was all a “cover up”.

Now, to prove just how much he meant his railings against Clinton, he has named on person to his intelligence team and is considering another person to be Secretary of State or head of the DIA or some other intelligence position who have compromised classified information.

The first, Mike Flynn was severely reprimanded for handing over classified information to NATO partners without permission from higher authority. The matter was investigated by DOD and he was considered to have mishandled classified information, thus the reprimand.

The Second Gen. Petraeus who is currently on a two-year probation for mishandling classified information. That was the result of a plea deal. His crime was even worse than Flynn’s. He actually gave some very sensitive information to his biographer, with whom he was also having an affair, then he lied about it. The FBI discovered this highly classified information in a desk drawer in his house.

Now Trump wants these two men, who have actually been proven to not handle classified information properly to be put into positions that need to handle very sensitive classified information.

He named Jeff Sessions to be his Attorney General. Jeff Sessions is an open racist. He said the KKK is okay, except he doesn’t like some of them smoking pot after their meetings. He has voted against things like the Violence Against Women’s Act, every Civil Rights bill brought to the Senate floor, wants a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage, fought against equality rights for disabled children to attend public schools, and a host of other things.

Trump now wants him to “enforce” the very things he hates. There are effectively two ways to kill civil rights in this country. First is to pass legislation that repeals those rights, and the second is to simply not enforce their provisions. Trump appears to be using the second option.

It is the responsibility of the Department of Justice to enforce all of the laws of this country. However, with Session’s record against human decency, we can be pretty sure he won’t enforce those laws he personally doesn’t like. Do you really believe he will enforce what is left of the Voting Rights Bill?

Additionally, Sessions is very anti-immigration. You can bet the first order will be to “round up” all of the so-called “illegals” in the country. If you were wondering where Trump’s deportation force would come from, you now have your answer.

Sessions is also in favor of banning Muslims from immigrating to our country. He favors a registry for all Muslims already here. He is in favor of “monitoring” Mosques to make sure they aren’t “radicalizing” anyone.

Yesterday, it was announced that Rep. Tom Price will head up the Department of Health and Human services. Remember those 50 bills in the House of Representatives to repeal the Affordable Care Act? He wrote every single one of them.

His “replacement” plan known as the Empowering Patients First Act is nothing more than an Empowering Insurers First Act. His “plan” would gut Obamacare’s regulation of insurance plans, reduce the total financial assistance going to people buying private coverage and rescind entirely the law’s expansion of Medicaid for the poorest Americans.

Insurers could resume some of the practices that Obamacare now prohibits ― like selling bare-bones plans and, in some cases, denying coverage to people with pre-existing conditions. Price’s proposal would offer people tax credits, but there’d be no guarantee the credits could actually pay for comprehensive coverage.

He also believes that homosexuality is some kind of abnormality. As such, they should bed shunned and not allowed into “polite” society. He favors the amendment to ban same-sex marriage and considers homosexuals to have “pre-existing” conditions which could cut them off of insurance under his plan.

He also expressed his belief that same-sex partners should not be allowed to help make medical decisions on behalf of their sick partner. Nor does he favor same-sex partners having the same visitation rights as any other partner might have.

Furthermore, Price believes that Medicare should be privatized and Medicaid should be abolished. Under his replacement plan for the Affordable Care Act, it is estimated that at least 20 million people will lose their health care coverage. Of course, Trump promised not to change Medicare or Medicaid during the campaign. So much for campaign promises.

Both Sessions and Price argue that children born to non-citizens should not have “citizenship birthright”. Meaning if a non-citizen gives birth in this country, that child would not automatically become a citizen as the constitution says they would.

Then, yesterday, Trump announced that he believes that anyone who “burns the American flag” should go to jail and lose their citizenship. I know that a lot of people don’t like the idea of burning the flag in protest. But, it is a protected First Amendment right of Free Speech as ruled by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Of course to conservatives, the right of Free Speech only applies if they agree with what is said or done. The fact that a dissenter could have those same rights is unthinkable to them. They consider shouting at two Asian women in a diner and calling them names and telling them they should “go back to Tokyo” is free speech, but burning the flag in dissent is not free speech.

I served 20 years to defend our freedoms and the constitution. I may not like seeing the flag being burned, but I refuse to “criminalize” the act. Are we also going to make burning the President in Effigy a crime too? Or maybe all of those Obama stunts like showing up a football game wearing an Obama mask with a noose around your neck? Maybe that should be a crime too. Or, all of those “funny” emails about the President we have had to put up with for eight years.

Sorry conservatives, you don’t have the right to pick and choose what rights people are allowed to have and which ones they are not allowed to have. That is not in our constitution which you claim to love so much.

We haven’t even gotten into all of the conflicts of interest that Trump will face as President. For example, did you know that the lease for his new hotel in the old Post Office building in Washington has a clause that says no one associated with the hotel can serve in public office? Once Trump takes the oath, he will be in violation of that lease.

We are going to lose our freedoms under a Trump presidency. The only question is how quickly will it all happen. Will it be a gradual chipping or a quick repeal of those rights. In either case, we all lose.

Trump does not have the mandate he thinks he has. Yes, he wont the Electoral College, but he lost the popular vote by over 2 million ballots. So, he is basically a minority government, not one with a mandate.

Yet, we are going to see our civil liberties eroded and we will find ourselves back in the 1800s with basically no rights except the right to rent our homes from the company who hired us and to purchase our supplies at their stores. We will have the right to become poorer and more at the mercy of the one percenters.

If he goes ahead with his plans to abolish OSHA and the EPA we will have no workplace safety rules and no protection for our water and air. We will have no right to unionizing and fair bargaining rights. No, we will all live in those good ole days when the company runs our lives and throws us out of our homes if we become less “productive” or too old for their bottom lines, even if it kills us. There won’t even be any unemployment insurance for us to fall back on until we can find another job.